I was just wondering, when you guys fly domestic do you usually get an entire can of soda or just a part of a can? Last week I flew DLORD-LGA and on the flight there I just got a tiny, tiny bag of peanuts and about 2oz of Coke into my cup that was all ice. The flight was packed and on schedule. On the return flight we were delayed about an hour I guess due to NY weather, the flight was only about half full, but they gave everyone an entire can of soda and came around with a basket of about 5 or 6 different snacks to choose from. The flight attendents were even playing some games giving out free alcohol. So I ask, why was one flight so frugal and the other flight was actually pretty good service. I am thinking maybe they tried to make the passengers happy because of the delay? Any ideas?

I once flew AA from JFK to EZE and the flight was cancelled and after sleeping in the airport we finally left.

The AA crew gave each travellor the option of snakes, as well as a dinner service along with wine with the meal and a maximum of two free alcoholic drinks.

Obviously the outbound flight was a ´normal´flight in that there was a dinner service, alcohol was sold.

I do understand about your point ref the half full can of soda. I remember they did the same with me in that they open the can and pour you a glass full.......

I think the US carriers in general are pretty good when it comes to keeping irate passengers happy in the air but when the flight is normal they really do seem to do the minimum and I mean the MINIMUM.

Flying in/out of SEA on AS unless I can snag an upgrade; I always carry a bottle of water with me because it seems to be hit or miss most of the time with them. My most recent flight last month SEA-SJC-SEA, on the outbound I ended up with a cup on the return I got a full can, but this could have been because I bought two bottles of Bacardi. I guess you never can tell, it is not ours to question the catering gods.

A lot of F/A's only pour a cup of soda because if they hand out the full can to everyone on the plane they end up getting a lot back half-full. If a flight is catered for both the outbound and return portion then a lot of times there simply aren't enough supplies on board to give everyone a can, especially if the flight is full. This goes for snacks too, which may explain why you experienced the more "generous" service on the flight that was not full.

If you want more snacks ask if they have extra and if it is possible to get a 2nd bag or two. Flight attendants have no problem accommodating any polite requests, and the ones that do should really consider a career change!

#1: What goes in, must come out. With my smaller-than-average-size bladder, the less I drink on the plane, the less I'm up and down. May or may not be true for everyone, but something to think about (even if the drinks are free!).

#2: When you are good to flight attendants, they will be good to you. Asking nicely never killed anyone (despite what many of the great-unwashed travelling heathen masses may think!), and I have always been able to procure a full can of soda and refills on coffee. Small talk about airplanes (letting them know I'm an a.netter) goes a long way as well.

Airlines often 'return cater' flights so they only pay for catering services in a few cities instead of all. It is not actually the cost of food and drink that is so expensive, its the cost of paying a catering company to drive out to the aircraft with a truck, swap trolleys etc etc. Most airlines use return catering on short-haul flights these days.

Problem is, if you have a completely full and demanding flight on the outbound sector, provisions for the return can be diminished quite a lot! hence, sometimes, the need to be a bit frugal with the food and drink!

I am TED. TED is part of United. TED no give you whole can of soda. Even if you ask (nicely). This is because TED pretending to be LCC. No, but seriously TED don't get catering service at all airports. This means that all soda must last 2 or 3 (sometimes 4) flights. If TED gave full can to everyone, the third or fourth flight no get any drinks! This is so that TED can have fast turn time. But, TED no always have fast turn time. Sometime A320 flight computer has glitch and TED need to be reprogrammed. But even after flight computer reprogram, TED still no give whole can. TED likes to give lots of ice though.

AA's policy was that it is tacky to hand over a can so officially the FA's pour a glass and refill/give the can on request only. From an FA perspective it is easier to just hand over the can and a cup of ice. That is why you see some inconsistancy.

Independence the policy was pour and refill for service and cost-cutting reasons.

At World our policy varies depending on the contract but for troops we always give the whole can.

At every airline I've worked for if the FA has it available and you ask for the whole can we can and will give it to you. In fact I liked it when people wanted the whole can I thought it made the service faster.

Quoting Jaws707 (Thread starter):I was just wondering, when you guys fly domestic do you usually get an entire can of soda or just a part of a can?

Man, I missed these topics. They used to be a staple like NW DC-9's!

That said, last week I flew B6 and was absolutely amazed how many times they came by offering more food or drinks. The attention was at a level I haven't seen in years yet they did a good job not to interupt anyone "absorbed" into the IFE. And when one asked for a drink, one was automatically given the can. Not a big deal... but nice. Then I was shocked at the FA's literly "patroled" the isle with trays of water bottles and baskets of snacks... again, not a big deal but a nice touch. And whenever I went back to use the head, the F/A's would kindly offer "would you like anything." My coffee cup never went dry.

Side note off topic: I became a Bose headphone convert on that flight. Man... it *hurt* to remove the headphones and lose the noise cancelation. Normally I didn't think of the A320 as that loud comparitively, but obviously aircraft have noisy interiors.

Quoting Monkeyboi (Reply 8):its the cost of paying a catering company to drive out to the aircraft with a truck, swap trolleys etc etc. Most airlines use return catering on short-haul flights these days.

Interesting. But I was also under the impression airlines were cutting drinks to limit weight (which impacts fuel burn).

Quoting Treeny (Reply 1):The AA crew gave each travellor the option of snakes

I'm thinking that was a male F/A offering a hottie use of his "python" and free "initiation into an airline club." Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Quoting IAirAllie (Reply 11):AA's policy was that it is tacky to hand over a can so officially the FA's pour a glass and refill/give the can on request only

That did, indeed, used to be our policy. It has changed. It is now policy to give the whole can whenever possible.

Actually, that's not true. The policy is to give the whole can, period. However, in typical large corporation fashion, the people making the policy change failed to communicate adequately with those actually provisioning the flights. As a result, we sometimes don't give the can. Some factors:

1. Time of day. The airplanes are stripped by the caterers at night. If you are on the first flight of the day, you are less likely to get a can. The reason is that during the day, F/As will "hoard" unused soda for use on subsequent legs. That way, we run less risk of running out--we can use the saved soda to supplement the provisioning on the later flights. Of course, the official policy is to not hoard soda (it weighs a lot, and therefore costs fuel). We do it anyway.

Also, in the morning, we get many requests for juice (apple, cranapple, tomato). If we always gave a can, we would be out before we were done with half the cabin. In an effort to give everyone a least a cupful of what they want, we may just give a cup of juice.

2. Market. Some markets are famous for wanting ginger ale, or cranapple, or club soda, or some such. Our soda provisioning is a standard mix. So if we know from experience that it is a "heavy club soda flight", we may try to only give a cup...again, so we don't run out.

3. Clearly, the load factor plays a part. If we're full full full it's a lot harder to do cans without running out.

This should come as good news to those of you stuck in the back. If we didn't do this, you would get tonic water because that's all we'd have left. We do write this up, and slowly the behemoth called "food and beverage" makes changes. It would be helpful if you would refer to the American Way magazine. It has the postal and email address of Consumer Relations. Express your discontent. Frankly, if you complain, things change faster than if we complain.

The ones to NOT get mad at are the F/As. Any F/A that I know would be more than happy to give you the whole can, provided that we have it to give. Trust me, we don't get off making you unhappy!!

Also, even if you see we are not offering the whole can, a polite "could I have the rest of that can, please" will get it for you 99% of the time.

You would also be amazed at how much soda we throw away when we give cans. A lot of people just don't drink it all. Frankly, I think the solution might be bigger cups. Currently, you put a couple of ice cubes in the cup and there isn't much room for soda! If we had a bigger glass, the "cup" portion would be larger, but still not a full 12oz.

The views expressed are my own, and not necessarily those of my employer.

Quoting FLFlyGuy (Reply 15):2. Market. Some markets are famous for wanting ginger ale, or cranapple, or club soda, or some such. Our soda provisioning is a standard mix. So if we know from experience that it is a "heavy club soda flight", we may try to only give a cup...again, so we don't run out.

Quoting Lightsaber (Reply 13):That said, last week I flew B6 and was absolutely amazed how many times they came by offering more food or drinks. The attention was at a level I haven't seen in years yet they did a good job not to interupt anyone "absorbed" into the IFE. And when one asked for a drink, one was automatically given the can. Not a big deal... but nice. Then I was shocked at the FA's literly "patroled" the isle with trays of water bottles and baskets of snacks... again, not a big deal but a nice touch. And whenever I went back to use the head, the F/A's would kindly offer "would you like anything." My coffee cup never went dry.

Well thanks! That is, however, our service standard (as per our handbook). My guess is that you were on a west coast flight; on those, we offer the usual snacks/beverages, then about an hour or so before arrival, we go through with a water service followed by a cheese & cracker package and another beverage service. All beverages are served whole-can. Glad you enjoyed it!

Quoting Treeny (Reply 1):The AA crew gave each travellor the option of snakes

LOL "Today's flight will feature the latest movie starring Samuel L. Jackson, 'Snakes on a Plane'". That made my day!

Quoting Jaws707 (Thread starter):I was just wondering, when you guys fly domestic do you usually get an entire can of soda or just a part of a can?

A tip for everyone who is flying Lufthansa: Always order a Coke Light instead of a regular Coke, LH serves the regular Coke from large bottles and you only get a plastic cup of it while they serve Coke Light in cans and you always get the whole can.

I flew DTW-FLL-DTW on DL and I got the full can of pop (soda) on all my flights and and extra on coming home. As far as the snacks. We (I) had 5 or 6 choices of snacks on all flights. That includes Comair flight DTW-CVG. And the FA were great and fun to be with... It felt like the old days of flying with DL. The service and Attitude was like old southern way. I loved the service and I for one could not tell that the polits where very unhappy with the company. I would fly them again and even put my clients on DL flights.

On my most recent flights (ATL-LAS, LAS-DFW-ATL) it really depended on the inflight crew. On my flight from ATL to LAS, the first drink service, they gave everyone half a can (I usually order one of the oddball sodas I like, mainly because they'll usually give you the whole can); on the second, most folks got a half can again. I got a full can, as I had ordered an adult beverage..... My flight from LAS-DFW and from DFW-LAS, the inflight crew on both flights asked whether you wanted a half can or a full can.

Quoting ASAFA (Reply 5):Guys it's not rocket science. If you want the full can, ask for it.

Bingo! Is this actually worthy of a post? It's called communication. As the customer, if you want it ask for it, or conversely, as the flight attendant offer it. Plunking down a can is assuming the customer wants it, and if not consumed or desired, that's avoidable wasteage.

Above and Beyond

25 Kaniksu
: I usually drink water but every time I have wanted a full can of soda I have asked for it and I never have had my request denied. I'm sure many people

26 S5FA170
: Hi there - If you flew LGA-ORD on DL, you flew on Shuttle America, correct? I fly for Shuttle, and we are catered for two legs. The aircraft has to ma

27 Jaws707
: Yes, the flight was operated by Shuttle America. As far as the topic is concerned, I was not upset that I did not recieve the entire can of soda, but